Song-by-Song: ‘Put On A Record Tommy’ by Tom A. Smith

Tom A. Smith: “Whenever I write, it always has to be what feels most authentic and organic to me at that moment or it doesn’t work.” Photo: Katie Anderson

On this deluxe release, Sunderland’s finest tackles rockstar expectations, dancefloor wizards, extended mixes, and his enduring love of Talking Heads

Sunderland’s Tom A. Smith has been making music since childhood, playing his first gig at eight and appearing at Glastonbury before reaching secondary school. Now one of the UK’s most promising young artists, he has shared stages with Elton John, Sam Fender, and Catfish And The Bottlemen.

Released earlier this year, Put On A Record Tommy captures Smith’s instinct for infectious indie hooks, dancefloor momentum, and emotionally direct songwriting. Its theatrical, high-energy sound draws on indie, dance, rock, and pop, reflecting an artist who writes and produces on his own terms. A new expanded edition adds three tracks, including the anthemic Am I Ever Gonna Be A Rockstar? alongside a reworked version of the title track and a Talking Heads cover.

Here, Smith discusses a selection of songs from the extended set, exploring the ideas and decisions behind each…

What’s in Tom A. Smith’s Songwriting Survival Kit?

AM I EVER GONNA BE A ROCKSTAR?

Am I Ever Gonna Be A Rockstar? is one of my favourite tracks that I’ve released. The production of it really suits the tongue-in-cheek, quite literal, lyrics. It imitates the lyrics at times with the, “right to left,” lyric having the vocal move across the mix that way and the overly distorted rock humbucker guitar chords. The pre-chorus makes the track feel like it’s going to go into a huge loud chorus but it does the opposite and drops down to a driving four-to-the-floor chorus which imitates the question, “Am I ever gonna be a rockstar?” or in the sense of the arrangement, am I ever gonna have a big rock chorus?

As I mentioned, the lyrics are incredibly tongue-in-cheek and very literal. I am often compared to many artists who are phenomenal and some are actually inspirations or heroes of mine. Though it’s amazing to be told that, while knowing I won’t ever be at that level, it also adds quite a bit of pressure to maintain a sound or style that people have come to enjoy with my music.

Whenever I write, it always has to be what feels most authentic and organic to me at that moment or it doesn’t work. I am always being inspired by different things and my music taste is so diverse. It’s hard not to have your music develop and change with you, stylistically and lyrically. The song for me is about wanting to avoid being pigeonholed into a certain genre or category.

OUR SONG

The extended version of Our Song is actually just the initial version of the track when I first wrote it. I was really fortunate to be able to work with Hugo White on the first EP version of the track, where we worked out a way to make the track more concise and effective and cut some time off it, he has done such a phenomenal job on the production of that version.

This extended version is produced and mixed by myself. We had been playing the long version of the track at the end of last year on The Lottery Winners tour and it had become a fan favourite. I’ve been asked on a few occasions if that version of the song will be released, so I got to work on the mix for it. I really love how the track builds and milks every section. The ending feels so euphoric when it arrives, because of the wait, and I think the payoff is worth it. There are loads of small repeating melodies throughout the track on the guitars and synths that give the song so much personality.

The most important part of a long song for me is the vocal performance. How do the dynamics change and grow; you have to make the most of the more subtle sections to allow those big moments to pop and be impactful. It was about having catchy repetitive moments while also occasionally changing the delivery or tone of the lyrics to let it breath. The space in the verses between the lyrics let you listen to the storytelling, but the faster groovier pre-chorus and chorus sections help the track build.

You would think that the most important part of the instrumentation in a song like that is adding more and more aspects to help it grow, but while that is still important, for me, I find moving parts in and out let it build better and more organically whilst keeping the energy throughout. A lot of the parts were done as one-take performances to allow you to really feel the build without actually realising how much it has. Lyrically, the track is about making memories with people and how we can often associate a song to a person, a moment or period of our lives. It’s about taking every opportunity while also being overly ambitious and excited about your passions.

DANCEFLOOR MAGIC (GROOVE WIZARD)

Dancefloor Magic (Groove Wizard) is the most fun I have had writing and producing a track. I was trying to make a concept for what I feel would be a really cool and fun musical or movie. The concept is, there is a wizard (Groove Wizard) who has cast a spell on a nightclub and the only way it could be lifted is by everyone in there having the best night of their life. I haven’t really worked out what happens if they don’t, so I need to think of that.

I had just watched The Labyrinth and it’s such a nostalgic film that I grew up loving and watching and felt inspired by it. I wanted there to be an actual character in the track and Groove Wizard was a temporary name I’d given them but it ending up not changing.

I really wanted the production to feel like a track that would be on a Halloween playlist alongside The Monster Mash or Thriller, something that feels cheesy but cool, recognisable or iconic-feeling. Dancefloor Magic just felt like such a great hook of a lyric. I love the charm of the production, with the vocoder and the obnoxiously low and reverbed, spooky backing vocals.

Tom A. Smith: “You have to make the most of the more subtle sections to allow those big moments to pop and be impactful.” Photo: Katie Anderson

CARRIED AWAY

I wrote Carried Away not long before the original EP came out so it was just too late to feature in it. It’s actually the track that made me what to do a deluxe version of the EP. I was listening to The Frenz Experiment by The Fall quite a bit at the time and I love a track on there called Carry Bag Man. I loved the lethargic but authentic energy on that record and it sent me on a way of experimenting, initially, with a two-mic set up on the drums for the initial demo of the track and I built Carried Away around that.

Though we have a lot of energy live, none of the songs we play are that fast barring maybe Our Song and Fashion. I usually focus on the groove. I wanted to make a track that felt raw and energetic from the start. It’s a self-produced track like most of the songs on the EP, but the production and mixing are quite minimal. Its focus is mainly on the performance of the instruments instead of layering. It’s a single main vocal which gives it a timeless punky edge, two guitars, bass, and a single synth. This made the mixing quite simple as everywhere naturally had a place to sit in the mix without much work to do – barring EQing and panning.

I re-recorded the drums with Barry Hyde from The Futureheads at his phenomenal studio in Sunderland where Frazer (my incredible drummer) put in an energetic performance. Some of the fills in the track feel really tasteful and often match the groove of the main vocal. I’m pretty sure the whole drum recording is one take.

Lyrically the song is an honest commentary on how life really differs when you’re away from stage and touring. I find it easiest writing about that moment in time and what’s going on the world around me then. I feel that’s the easiest way to do it and feels more relatable to a listener. I hadn’t written a song in a few weeks and I literally say that in the first line and after that, the song wrote itself really.

I’m from Sunderland and we just qualified for European football for the first time in over 50 years; I know how special that is for the entire city and even though there was already a couple of subtle references to the region in the track, I decided to go back to it and add a more obvious one with, “You’ve never seen a Mackem in Milan, well you have now babe.” Fortunately, we did end up drawing Milan, which is amazing for the city.

Tom A. Smith: “I think David Byrne is one of the coolest and most creative people to ever exist.” Photo: Katie Anderson

PUT ON A RECORD TOMMY

Over the last couple of EPs, it’s been common for me to do extended mixes of tracks. I like, as a listener, seeing where else a song can go and I’ve always been a fan of retro 12-inch versions of singles. I made the extended version of Put On A Record Tommy after I had released the single. It’s a favourite of mine to play live and I was experimenting with where else I could take it live. Rowetta [Satchell – Happy Mondays vocalist] features on the track and when we initially did the single, she sent me around 15 different vocal stems of amazing vocal parts and extra lines which naturally didn’t all make the final mix.

It felt a bit of a shame for this goldmine to not see the light of day, so that was a key part to why I wanted to make the extended version. I loved messing around with a Galaxy Tape Echo on Rowetta’s vocals to give it that classic dance music feel with the ad-libs she recorded. It feels like a track that is built for a busy nightclub. The guitar solo almost feels like it’s swelling and sounds so euphoric and chaotic. It was actually just the first solo I played when I plugged a guitar in and hit record. It’s double-tracked so it really takes up the whole mix. The addition of the overly gained electronic tom fills is one of my favourite parts of the mix, it just feels so timeless and adds so much personality.

The addition of the new verse was fun to write. The song was written about what was going on in my life in that exact moment anyway. For example, I’d just found out I was going to America which is referenced in the track. This new verse was no different. The character of Tommy has really developed from when I wrote the track. Mainly from playing it live and my new exaggerated performance of the track. The pink polka dots and the white braces have become the staple look of Tommy and his character and persona has become a more charismatic glamorous ‘perfect’ version of me as a frontman. The premise of the verse is very tongue-in-cheek and suggests that dancing with Tommy will fix all your life problems. It’s sort of like an advertisement for Tommy’s Dance Place which is what the live show have been called for this EP.

LIFE DURING WARTIME

It’s of no surprise to anyone that Talking Heads are one of my favourite bands of all time I think David Byrne is one of the coolest and most creative people to ever exist. I find his lyricism so smart, so adventurous and incredible. I’ve had a lot of comparisons especially throughout this EP to the band, so I decided I was going to attempt a cover of my favourite track of theirs and put my own spin on it. I initially only recorded it for a social media post but it got a really strong response and I enjoyed making it, so I thought it would be an interesting and different addition to the deluxe EP.

Similarly to Carried Away, the production is very simple and is all about the performances. It’s a single live vocal take that I filmed as well, but I think it manages to give the song some of the energy that it’s known for. I love the arrangements in the original and it really suits the track so I didn’t want to divert too far away from those. But to make it my own I used a lot of the guitar tones, synths, piano, and vocal chain sounds I use on a lot of the records on the EP. The electric piano and guitar are heavy panned to either side and are both playing the same part and sort of blend into one sound which adds a nice width to the mix while also not getting in the way of the vocal part. I wanted the recording to maintain what makes the song great while also adding the charm of the likes of Put On A Record Tommy and Am I Ever Gonna Be A Rockstar?.

The Deluxe version of Put On A Record Tommy is out now. For his upcoming shows and more, follow @tomasmithmusic on Facebook and Instagram

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